Category: Content Creation

Post synopsis: Worried about high bounce rate on your website? You can reduce the rate by making your readers check out more content on your website. This post explores some simple tips to improve your bounce rate. You have a lot to share on your blog. Perhaps you want to share professional tips or nuggets of personal growth. Perhaps you want to share about your travels or your beauty hacks. Perhaps, you want to share your family recipes. And you work very hard at not only creating solid content that is SEO-friendly but also promoting it social media platforms. Your page views are going up but somehow so is your bounce rate. This worries you. You Well, here’s the good news. High bounce rate does not necessarily mean readers are…

Post Synopsis: A powerful (i.e. highly-converting) sales page is made up of two things: a good copy and a good (visual) design + layout. Without one or the other, your sales page will fall flat. In this post, you will understand what makes for a good copy and a good design when it comes to a designing a sales page. Last week, I introduced you to the characteristics of an effective sales page. This week, I want to introduce you to the components that make up an effective sales page, i.e. how to design a sales page. Broadly, these components fall into two categories--text and design. The text (a.k.a. the copy) is the story of you and your product or service. The design is how you organize the story to…

Post Synopsis: Your sales page is the window to your amazing product. It is what will help potential customers decide if they want to invest in your product or service. This post explains how to write an effective and persuasive sales page that converts potential clients into paying clients. Who among you started a blog but has no plans of ever monetizing it? Nobody? Thought as much. So, what’s your plan for monetizing your website? Earn from advertising banners? Market affiliate products/services? Create sponsored content? If any or all of these strategies are your chosen strategy for monetization, this post is not for you. But, if you want to create and sell your own products and/or services, stick around. Think about the last course or eBook you bought from your…

Post Synopsis: A call-to-action (CTA) button is an integral part of blogging endeavor. It helps build engagement, invites responses and shares, opens communication channels, and builds your email list. This post explores the characteristics of a high-converting CTA button. You started a blog and you are investing hours upon hours of your life to create fabulous blog posts and very relevant content upgrades to go with the posts. Your email list is growing...but at a snail’s pace. You are creating fantastic mini-courses or worksheets for a nominal price and hoping someone will make a purchase. You are earning from your products...but not enough to even pay for weekly grocery. You waited patiently for your cat to do something fun, recorded it, and posted it on YouTube. Funny cat videos are…

Post synopsis: Are you a blogger who wants to make money online? Creating sponsored content is a great way of earning an income from your website. This post explores the ins and outs of finding sponsored blogging opportunities and creating sponsored content. You know how I got addicted to YouTube? By watching beauty videos! That was some 8-9 years ago and online influencers and niche gurus were becoming a real thing. Beauty channels were especially huge on both YouTube and Google. Lifestyle blogs were making an appearance but all they posted really were “What’s my makeup routine?” “What’s in my bag?” “What’s my evening skincare routine?” etc. How many of you have watched Michelle Phan and Elle Fowler videos--the numero-uno beauty gurus of their time? You would know why it…

So you’ve decided to start a blog and become a blogger…a professional blogger. Good for you! It’s a fast-growing community of awesome people who are driven to live life on their own terms. Blogging success stories are shared in every popular media. Bloggers are replacing traditional celebrities in many endorsement deals. These “bloggers” are now known as “digital influencers.” They have the power to make or break upcoming brands with their reviews. They are also teachers, mentors, coaches, and employers. They are the new face of the digital world. And you want to join the club. But if you are looking for someone to tell you how to start a blog for free and make money, my friend, it's not happening. Because professional blogging is a business and no business…

Synopsis: A lead magnet or an optin freebie is a free resource you give away to your readers in exchange for their email IDs. This post explores the frequently asked questions (FAQ) related to lead magnets. As a business owner, one of your main goals is to find leads and convert them into paying customers. Right? But how do you find those customers? In a brick-and-mortar business, your shop is your proof of concept but you may also mail flyers and possibly drop an advertisement in the local newspaper. But what are your options in the blog world? Well, you embrace the most popular medium of communication in the digital world--the email. I tell you the email is the greatest invention of all times, especially for an introvert like me.…

Have you heard of Buzzfeed quizzes? Never mind; scrap that because I know you have. New question: have you tried a Buzzfeed or similar quiz? Come on, no shame! I have taken SO many quizzes it’s embarrassing. Here are some I remember: Which Disney princess are you? Which city should to move to? Which vegetable are you? (Say, what?!) What type of a mom are you? (Panda!) Are you a bad mom? :-O (Okay, this was around the time the movie Bad Moms was showing, but I tell you, mom guilt is real!) That said, over time, these quizzes faded into the oblivion because I stopped using my personal Facebook profile. It was part of my “simplify life” action plan. That was two years ago. If it weren’t for Momchakra.com…

You have created an awesome piece of content--be it a blog post, a video, or a podcast episode--but no one knows about it. Not until you put it out for others to see it. For a new blogger, getting organic traffic is mostly unheard of. That’s because ranking on search engine result pages takes a lot of hard work and time. While you improve your SEO skills, you need to find other places to promote your content and attract blog traffic. For those of you who downloaded the Boost Your SEO Cheat Sheet, you would have noticed that promoting your content on social media platform plays a huge role in getting your brand name out there. But, blog promotion is hard work. You are competing with hundreds of, if not…

We all have just come out of an extremely busy season. The first quarter of every year promises to be as busy. During such time-strapped periods, you feel drained out and it takes a lot to motivate yourself. As a result, often your work commitments fall by the wayside. But you don’t want to let go of those commitments. It is essential to keep your audience connected to you and your brand throughout the year. And especially during the busy times because your existing audience is going through the same motions and is looking for support. Additionally, there are a lot of new people looking to start something new. Again, they need inspiration and motivation. So how do you ensure you are still putting up quality posts even when you…

Have you heard of the term 'readability score'? Perhaps back in school, you were asked to write an essay or a report with a certain readability score. Well, what you learn in school doesn't stay in school. As a blogger, you must ensure that your content is on par with your audience's level of experience and literacy. Your content should NOT be too easy for your readers to understand because they will then undervalue your expertise. At the same time, it should NOT be too challenging because it will turn off your readers and add no value to their lives. If you have never heard about the term 'readability,' it is a measurement system for your content. Based on several parameters, the system assigns a score. The Flesch–Kincaid readability measuring…

Across search engines and/or Pinterest, what is the first thing you notice about the search results? What compels you to pick a particular blog post? Is it the image and its styling? Is it the author/website’s name? Is it the headline or title? In most cases, it has to be the headline. Here’s why: You query the search engine for specific information. By default, the search engine result pages (SERP) display the most relevant results for your search query. That means within each page, it now comes down to the competition among all the listings. Now, you will either default to viewing the results top-down, i.e. in the order the search engine displays the results or you will pick the result that aligns closest with your requirements the most. This alignment comes from…

According to a Nielsen report, “on the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.” So, if you wrote a 1000-word blog post, your reader will read only 280 words of your post. Wanna bet most of those words will be in your post’s introduction? I have written about this earlier too: before even knowing the relevance of a post, your audience must be ready to pay attention to your writing. And you have about 15 seconds to do so. Why Do You Need to Grab Your Readers' Attention? How many of you deal or have dealt with a toddler or a preschooler? There are times when you are fighting tooth and nail to gain their…

You started blogging with great intentions. You started with a bang and in the process exhausted all of your awesome ideas. Now, a few weeks in, you are struggling to come up with topic ideas. That spells trouble for anyone with true intentions of blogging professionally. Or, perhaps you are great with ideation. You are religiously publishing a new post every week. Now, you want to ramp up your publishing schedule and publish more blog posts every week. Even if you don’t see yourself as either of the above examples, it’s always good to have a list of ideas to work with. So, what can you do to come up with more and more ideas? Sure, you have to use the tried-and-tested techniques (Google Keyword Planner, Pinterest search bar, BuzzSumo,…

Creating high-quality instructional content (in a blog) is a highly sought-after income option. Isn’t it amazing it to share your knowledge with others and eventually being paid for it? Your writing may help a working mom to manage her time better. Your writing may allow a stay-at-home to add to her family’s finances. Your writing may help a toddler mom to learn how to engage her child. The possibilities are many. And they are all positive! In my earlier post, I introduced you to the ARCS model of presenting instructional content. You learned about the importance of including the elements of attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction in your writing. While the ARCS model will help you keep an overarching strategy in mind, you also need to work on the meat of…

Have you ever found yourself attracted to a particular blogger’s writing style? Have you ever thought what is it about this blogger’s style that attracts you? For example, I LOVE reading Ruth Soukup’s weekly posts on the Elite Blog Academy blog and the related newsletter that comes with each post. It took me a while to figure out why her writing was so effective. Most of her posts: Have an attention-grabbing or action-oriented headline Illustrate a personal but relatable struggle of hers in the introduction Pose a thought-provoking question End with a strong dose of motivation Use simple and familiar language These are all tenets of great writing, especially when it comes to instructional or motivational articles. Besides the obvious element of great “writing,” the effectiveness of such posts also…

Ever since I started this blog four months ago, I have been playing around with themes and trying to establish its visual branding guidelines (I realize I will have to purchase a premium theme and/or hire a designer eventually, but for now, I enjoy playing with the available resources). While I have been pretty sure about the style of content this blog will carry, I have been quite fickle with the visual aspect. So, every time I changed the theme, I wanted to update the color scheme of all images on the blog and social media. I have experimented with so many colors pallets (all in the same color family though) and fonts, it was difficult to keep track. And then it hit me! Why wasn’t I using the #1…